[Last revised July 23, 2025]
If you live in any state other than Texas, this information may not be applicable to you so we recommend you instead read our general Frequently Asked Questions Guidance for DACA Recipients and Legal Practitioners
What is the current state of DACA?
On Jan. 17, 2025, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision, finding parts of the Biden Administration’s DACA rule to be unlawful. The court also indicated that a forbearance only program, providing protection from deportation but not work permits, may be allowed.
The court also kept the stay order pending further case proceedings, which means that for now current DACA recipients–across the U.S. and in Texas–can still renew their DACA. The Fifth Circuit decision also limits the scope of the injunction to undocumented individuals residing in the state of Texas. On March 11, 2025, the 5th Circuit court’s mandate went into effect. However, we have yet to see first-time requests being fully processed and have not seen any communication from USCIS explaining the mandate’s implementation. We are also waiting for Judge Hanen to modify his order in response.
For now, those who currently have DACA, or those whose DACA has expired within one year, can continue to renew, and advance parole remains available. Initial DACA requests (and late renewal requests from those whose DACA expired over a year ago) can be filed, but are not being granted at this time. The litigation is ongoing, and there could be new announcements and changes by the Trump administration, so we encourage you to periodically visit our website, revisit this publication, and follow us on social media to learn of any new developments. To receive the latest updates and developments on DACA ,sign up here.
Why single out Texas?
Texas was the state that the court found to have shown enough proof of being harmed by the implementation of DACA citing to the state costs of providing social services.
It is important to emphasize that current DACA recipients in Texas continue to have access to their current work permits and can continue renewing both their DACA and work permits.
What will happen next?
The Fifth Circuit found that it was appropriate to limit the geographical scope of the injunction to Texas because Texas was the only state that had shown it was “actually injured” by the new DACA rule. Practically, this could result in several scenarios explored in the next section. As next steps, the Fifth Circuit returned the case to the lower district court for Judge Hanen to continue the proceedings in accordance with the Fifth Circuit decision. We anticipate that Judge Hanen will determine how to end work authorization in Texas. Judge Hanen will also likely determine how to implement the consideration of new requests for DACA recipients in the other 49 states and District of Columbia and new applications for work permits in Texas. As of the date of this publication, Judge Hanen has not yet taken any steps to limit work permits from DACA recipients in Texas.
What could happen next?
There are various scenarios which we’ll list here to help people prepare for the possible what-ifs but this is not an exhaustive list.
If Judge Hanen’s new ruling creates a more limited DACA program in Texas we could see:
- Once Judge Hanen modifies his order in response to the Fifth Circuit decision, the Department of Homeland Security should begin to accept and process initial DACA applications from residents of all 50 states. DHS should grant DACA with work authorization in 49 states, and without work permits in Texas.
- Current work permits would likely be allowed to expire on their own (on the listed expiration date). We may see the court or the administration ask for the approximate 89,220 work permits in Texas to be immediately rescinded and returned like in 2015 when USCIS collected approximately 108,000 issued work permits.
- Judge Hanen could provide specific instructions for USCIS to follow or direct USCIS to release guidance themselves on who they will accept DACA requests from. For example, USCIS could say “if you currently live in Texas or your last request for DACA had a listed address in Texas, then you are eligible for protections from deportation only the next time you request DACA.”
These are just some of the possible scenarios but this is not an exhaustive list. The litigation is ongoing, and there could be new announcements and changes by the Trump administration so we encourage you to periodically visit our website, revisit this publication, and follow us on social media to learn of any new developments. To receive the latest updates and developments on DACA ,sign up here.